Witchcraft
by Endless Myth
Summary: Mai is transported back to the times of the witch trials in England. Rating for language, some romance, and violence later on. please r&r! chap. 4 is now up-sry for the delay! I really am sorry!
1. Beginnings

OKAY!!! hiya everyone!! just fyi, this is my first fanfic, so dont sue if it sucks!!! *which, it probably will* Now, as u have probably guessed, i dont own YuGiOh. duh. and as a quick note, the text between *the asterisks* are thoughts. of Mai. read!!  
  
***  
  
As the sun gently cast it's rays on the floor, the covers stirred. Slowly rising from her bed, Mai saw the clock, and its luminous numbers flashed 10:49  
  
*Thank god it's a Saturday...* She sat there for a moment. *I know I've forgotten something, and I know it was something important, but what the hell was it???*  
  
The silence was suddenly broken: *The phone!!!* There was a momentary bout of struggling and cursing as Mai scrambled to pick up the phone by her bedside.  
  
"Hey, Mai!" It was Tea  
  
A feeble "Hi" was the only response to that energy-filled greeting.  
  
"Are you okay? You don't sound too good..." Hey, atleast she sounded concerned...  
  
"I just woke up."  
  
"Oh...anyways, we were wondering if you would want to meet us for pizza downtown."  
  
"We?" She almost dreaded the answer.  
  
There was a muffled "Hey! That's mine!!" and a quite clear "SHUT UP!" from Tea. Apparently Joey had stolen something from Tristen, or vice versa. Predictable.  
  
"What was that, Mai?" She apparently hadn't heard the rhetorical question.  
  
"Nothing...ok, I'll see you at the pizza place on the corner of 7th and Main around 12:30. How's that sound?"  
  
"Sounds great! See ya then!" There was a quite click on the other side of the line, and Mai hung up the phone.  
  
*Why did Tea always have to be so damn perky???* she thought as she made her way out her door to the shower.  
***  
  
ok, hopefully, it wasn't that bad. now please!! review!! 


	2. Witch's Circle

Okay, thank you for all your advice/reviews. As you can see, I kind of jumped headlong into this fic without doing much research. I promise I'll do better next time!!! ~_~ ok and next, about the quotes and apostrophes. I honest to God have no idea what happened. See, i got this new computer, and it happens to be a mac, and I haven't installed word yet, and it comes with this *appleworks* for a word processor, so I saved it with a *.txt* extension. The file itself doesn't have the o things. So what I'm going to try another encoding, and see if that works... And I'm open for suggestions if it doesn't work. But please bear with me!! ^_^  
  
***  
  
As she opened the door, Mai only vaguely recognized the mist that was slowly gathering in the distance in the corner of her eye. She left her apartment and veered of towards downtown Domino, and she wondered what it was that Joey/Tristen had stolen from the other. If it was Joey who had been stolen from, it was probably food that had been stolen. That was the only thing that would get a rise from that kid, besides his sister. It could possibly anything that had been stolen from Tristen. She decided she would find out soon enough.  
  
Mai briskly walked down 7th street, heading towards Main street. It was definitely getting colder, with the Winter winds for the first time in awhile being able to pierce her heavy jacket which only made the street seem even more bleak. At last, just when the pizza-place was in view, Mai remembered what she had forgotten: *Oh F---!! I totally forgot about getting mom her birthday present!!* The best she would be able to do was go into the nearest shop and find something she would like and drop it off at the post office just around the corner.  
  
True to her thoughts, Mai ducked into the shop right next to her, positive that she would be able to find something that her mother would like. This was obviously one of those new age shops, complete with the latest medicinal herbs. There wasn't anyone at the counter, so Mai just looked around the shop. She immediately found a glass case filled with jewelry.  
  
At first all she saw was flashy plastic crystal, but she soon noticed one thing: a small, terra cota-like half disk, with a rough edge on the bottom, like it was broken in half. It was also covered in an intricate pattern of black markings.  
  
"So you like the witches circle?" The sudden interruption made Mai jump as she looked up to see the owner of the shop, a dumpy, wizened woman with a certain grand motherly quality about her, smiling at her. "If you want, I can take it out for you to look at."  
  
"Thank you, that would be great." Mai watched as the woman pulled out the pendant on it's thick cord.  
  
"I actually got this from an old british man," she said, recapping its history of it's time with her," my, that was a long time ago...it must have been six years already! Anyway, he said it has magical powers, and that it's very old, dating back to the 17th century. I myself haven't seen any signs of magic or anything, but no one has taken any interest in it. In fact, I think this is the first time in those six years that I've brought it out of this case!"  
  
As Mai held the pottery piece in her hand, she remembered the original reason she came in here. So she quickly looked in the case and spied some nice blue "crystal" earrings that her mother would like. "Could I buy this and those blue stud earrings there?"  
  
"Certainly, dear." She took the earrings with her over to the cash register and Mai followed with the necklace. As she rang the items up, Mai quickly wondered if she had enough money, since she just saw a sign that said that the shop didn't take credit cards. She had about 5000 yen in her wallet, but she knew that alot of jewelry could cost alot, and she hadn't seen any price signs. "That'll be 2250 yen."  
  
Mai silently breathed a silent sigh of relief as she handed over the money. She even had enough money left for express shipping, so the birthday gift would actually arrive on her mother's birthday. 'Thank you very much!!" she said, slipping the new jewelry of hers around her neck, and tucking the earrings for her mother under her arm.  
  
"Your welcome, dear."  
After she had come out of the post office, she rounded the corner to the pizzeria. A s she opened the door, Tea ran up to greet her.  
  
"Hey Mai!! Feeling any better?"  
  
"Uh, yeah. I'm fine" There wasa little *thunk* as something collided with Mai's head. She quickly turned around, not in the best of moods, to see two teenage boys, Joey and Tristan, slowly backing away. She bent down to pick up the small half disk. Shaking it at the pair, Mai said, "What the f**** do you think your doing??? You could have really hurt me with this thing!! I mean, I could be lying on the floor right now with a concussion!!"  
  
"Geez, Mai, Settle down...."  
  
Tea, trying at all costs to prevent world war 3, quickly glanced from Mai's reddening face to the counter with the cashier "Hey, Mai? Do you want something to eat?"  
  
"Yes, Tea, as a matter of fact, I would!" With that somewhat sarcastic remark, she stalked of to the counter, still clutching the thrown item in her hand. After Mai had returned to the table with her food, she took her first really good look at that item. It looked like a small piece of pottery with many black lines crossing over it in all directions in a some what familiar pattern... Her consentration was quickly broken by the hand waved in front of her face and the ever-annoying "Earth to Mai!!! Is there a light in the attic??"  
  
She quickly glanced up to see all them looking at her. I'm sorry, did I miss something?"  
  
Tristan replied "Yes! Joey wanted back his thing."  
  
"Oh, it's Joey's? Will Joey then answer me a question?"  
  
"Uh, ok, sure."  
  
"Where'd you get this?"  
  
This question caught him slightly off guard. "Well, we were cleanin' out the attic, and we found that thing, and I thought it looked cool, so I kept it."  
  
"Okay..." Mai was slowly putting the puzzle together in her head, so she pulled out the necklace around her neck. As she slowly pulled the two pieces together, the others watched with their mouths hanging open. All Mai saw, was that the two pieces fit together perfectly, while the others saw a bright flash, and then no trace of Mai at all.  
  
***  
  
ok, there's chapter 2. im sorry, but im not going to be able to update as much as you *and i* would like because of school. but, if the weather is like it has been *lots of snow days here on the east coast!!!!* i should be able tot get a fair amount done. also, does anyone know how old Mai is?? in this story, she's going to be 20 and in college. Also, for those wondering, 5ooo yen is about the equivalent of 55 U.S. dollars (and im not sure, but i think its somewhere around 30 British pounds). either way, please review!!! 


	3. Strangers

hi, and i hope everyone has been looking forward to this chapter! anyway, sorry for the delay in posting. really!! i've just had the school work piled up, and lacrosse practices just started.... and im just so sorry!!! ;_; you know, this is becoming a habit~*let's see what she can apologize for next time!* ok, on with the story...  
  
But first, I don't own YuGiOh. If I did, I'd be rich, and also, I wouldn't be writing this in the first place.  
  
***  
  
All Mai could see was a bright, but gray light, and only a brisk wind filled her ears- a stark contrast to the calm of the pizzeria. In response to the quick change, Mai's grip slipped on the two pieces, which promptly flew away from each other, one flying out of her hand and into the swirling vortex, while the other stayed firmly in her hand. A second after the witches circle flew apart, she felt herself tumble out of the tunnel of light, and her body meet up with the ground.  
  
As she slowly took in her surroundings, she vaguely wondered where she was. This dense forest looked nothing like domino, in fact, she couldn't think of having seen this place ever before in her life. Mai carefully assessed her damages: the forest floor was thick with leaves and other debris, so it was a relatively soft landing, but she couldn't quite understand, since she felt like she had fell a long way, that she hadn't hit at least one of the thickly growing trees nearby.  
  
She carefully stood up, realizing all too well the chill of winter. Suddenly, a twig snapped behind her. Mai whirled around to see a boy(man, really. he couldn't have been much older or younger than her) who looked rather startled, but strangely old fashioned looking... then she realized that was because he was wearing a linen shirt and strange brown pants.  
  
He was backing away slowly, and finally said "wh-who are you?!?" his voice sounded fearful.  
  
"I could ask you the same question. And where am I?" Mai kind of looked around her with an amused/confused look on her face.  
  
"Uh- well, you're in Liecester Shire" he started with a very confused look, " and I'm Christopher."  
  
"Right Chris, now you said we were in some place called Liecester Shire?"Christopher tried to suppress a shudder at the nickname, but failed miserably.  
  
"Well, yes. Where else would you be besides the dead center of the England? And I still don't know your name."  
  
"Oh yeah, it's Mai."  
  
"Ok... So um, are you new here?"  
  
"You could say that..."  
  
"Well, where do you live?"  
  
"Far, far away."  
  
"So what are you doing here?"  
  
"I don't know"  
  
"Do you at least have a place to stay?"  
  
"Nope!"  
  
After a slight pause, Christopher said "Well, I don't think my sister would mind, so if you'd like you could stay with us."  
  
Mai was pretty surprised. It wasn't every day that a stranger in a strange land offered her room and board. But then, it wasn't every day that she was stuck in a strange land staring down such a stranger, not to mention having just fallen through some sort of tunnel. "Rea- Wait, only your sister? Don't you have some parents?"  
  
Chris **we're just gonna call him that now(meaning i don't want to have to type that long name)** quickly looked away and said "We did, but they died in the great fire. We're orphans now."  
  
Mai quickly tried to apologize "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean t-"  
  
"No, no, its all right." But even when he said it, Mai could tell he didn't mean it. *He and his sister must have really had it rough...* Chris must have noticed her sympathy, because he quickly changed the subject. "Uh, so if you'll just follow me, we can get you cleaned up..."  
  
For the first time Mai noticed she was closed to covered in leaves and sticks were sticking out of her hair. It must have looked to Chris like she had been out in the woods rolling around on the ground. *So that's why he was looking at me so oddly....*  
  
***  
  
They had walked for maybe ten minutes with Mai looking around for anything even slightly familiar, and Chris occasionally looking back at the stranger he had just invited to stay at his house. Suddenly the trees thinned and Mai could see a modest-looking cottage up ahead with a nice stack of wood next to the doorway. *quaint. yet cute, but strangely old fashioned...* Again, Mai had that same feeling that it wasn't built recently... but she couldn't just name why it seemed that way. Maybe it was the thatched roof, or the cobble stone walkway, but something about it...  
  
"I'll get my sister to warm up the water, and she can help you set up the bath." Mai was shaken from her train of thought as Chris opened up the door to reveal the one room inside the house.  
  
"So you don't get running water out here on the edge of the forest?"  
  
All the response Mai got was a blank stare. "What are you talking about?"  
  
"So you get running water? Then why don't you use it?"  
  
"What do you mean running water?"  
  
"You know what, nevermind." Chris just shrugged, and went back to what he was doing.  
  
"My sister should be back soon. I think you'll like her." Just then the door flew open.  
  
***  
  
Sorry, felt like doing a cliff hanger. Any way, again, sorry for the late post. And just to let you know, no, I am NOT dead..... and i always check my email, so feel free to drop me a note. Anyway, you know the drill with the reviewing! catch yall later!! ^_^ 


	4. Realization

OK!! And I really am sorry that it took so long with another chapter of Witchcraft! But please, people, if I don't get reviews, I wont post for awhile. Ok, so maybe that's just an excuse, and its not even good one. anyway, lets just get on with the story.  
  
***  
  
As the door burst wide, a small-ish girl stood there and looked around. She seemed kind of impertinent, but in a likable way. She headed straight past Mai to Chris and said to him "Go ahead and start a fire; I've got everything for dinner, and I'd like to start right away."  
  
Mai just kind of stood there staring at the red haired girl. Why did she look so familiar?? Something about the sweet, kind face, the way she looked up with such admiration to her big brother. Mai was suddenly snapped from her thoughts by that same innocent face looking up at her with the biggest eyes she had ever seen.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
Chris hastily introduced the two: "Oh! Mai, this is my sister Lynia. Lynia, this is Mai. She'll be staying with us for a while."  
  
"Wow!! My own big sister!!" Lynia exclaimed, and hugged Mai around the waist. Mai kind of doubled over at the tight and unexpected embrace and looked at Chris for help. He could only say a meek "uh.sorry 'bout her, she gets kind of excited." and shrugged apologetically.  
  
Mai could only carefully remove the spindly arms from around her waist. "Now, your brother was saying something about getting me a bath. Maybe you could help me out with the details on that, because it appears that you don't have running water."  
  
"Oh, no, not near by. We get our water from a well. But wouldn't that be cold this time of year? We only do that in the spring and summer."  
  
"Oh. Okay.well then, what's the drill?"  
  
"You don't know how to heat water for a bath? Wow, you must be royalty or something! Well, can't hurt to learn now! And what do you mean 'drill'?"  
  
What was this girl talking about? She couldn't look to Chris for guidance; he had slipped out, presumably to get some firewood. Sure enough, as Lynia was bustling about, getting the water into a pot on a big hook over the fireplace, he came in with his arms full of firewood. Mai couldn't do anything but sit back and watch as Lynia started on dinner and Chris started a fire underneath that huge pot.  
  
*Why is everyone here so old fashioned?* thought Mai. *I only think I've seen one of those fireplaces in my history text boo. Wait!! It can't be! But, it makes everything make sense! That little Witch's Circle thing made me go back in time! So that means that it really belonged to a witch in this time period. But why would Joey have one half of it.* However, as soon as Mai was making some sense of things, Lynia's high pitched voice piped up: "Mai! The water is done! If you could take the pot around back, I'll get the soap!"  
  
So she grabbed a rag and took the pot to the side of the house without the windows. Mai noticed an old wooden tub standing up against the house. As soon as she had set it down, Lynia came around with some soap and two ragged towels. "I'm afraid it isn't much, but I'm sure you can make do." This young girl had something about her that made her wise beyond her years. It was almost natural for both of them to have her talk to Mai like a mother would to her daughter. With that she turned around and left Mai to her bath.  
  
***  
  
At first Mai had some trouble with the clothes that Lynia had left for her. First off, there was the corset. It wasn't that much different from her usual costume, but the strings were too short to wear it the looser way Mai liked it. Then there was the shift. It was a little big. No, really big. When she first put it on, she contemplated putting the corset back on over it, just to keep it up. In the end, she found the bodice under the skirt, and but that on over the shift. The skirt was also kind of big. *ha, ha, kind of.* It dragged a good 5 inches on the ground! She had to rip a strip of cloth off of her purple jacket to make sash so it would actually stay up.  
  
Finally, Mai was fully dressed and walked back into the house. Dinner was on the table and so she sat down at the empty chair. She caught Lynia's startled stare, but she quickly looked away, leaving her to wonder what she was looking at. She didn't have to wait long; Chris leaned over to her and whispered "Your shift is hanging off your shoulder."  
  
Mai looked at her shoulder. "Yes, it is. Is something wrong with that?" she asked innocently.  
  
Chris looked shocked. "Well yes! It looks hideous!"  
  
Mai thought a minute- *that's right. People in this time period didn't like seeing a lot of skin* "Oh! Yeah, that's absolutely right." She quickly pulled the sleeve over her shoulder. And she had to do so during the whole meal. The shift was so large on her, it kept slipping off her shoulder.  
  
Finally, the supper of salad and a small piece of meat each was finished and the earthenware dishes were set aside to be washed tomorrow. As everyone settled in for the night, Chris brought out a knife and a piece of wood and started whittling, while Lynia opened up a large wooden chest at the foot of one of the small beds on one side of the one room house. At first Mai just stood there looking around and for the first time really looked at her surroundings.  
  
It wasn't an exceptionally large room, but big enough to comfortably sustain a good 5 people. The back wall had the fireplace and the 2 beds, with the table across from the fireplace off to the side. The muddy plaster walls had a bench or two against them hiding an extra storage space beneath them. The benches, table, chairs, cabinets, and beds each were carved very ornately. Delicate flowers bloomed off of thickly twisted vines, beastly feet clawed at the ground and looked as though they would leave scratch marks. Even the chest, appearing dull at first glance, showed a forest with beautiful fairies playing in the moonlight. And when she glanced at the piece of wood in Chris's hand, she could already see the shape of a bird in it even though he'd only been working on it for a couple of minutes.  
  
A tug on her sleeve brought her back to her senses. Lynia was looking up at her to give her a small stack of shifts under a bone needle and some coarse thread. She said, "Since your going to need some more shifts, and Momma's are too big, why don't you go ahead and alter them so they don't hang off the shoulder like that." She gave Mai a sweet little smile and went back to the chest and got herself a little embroidery hoop and sat down by the fire and started stitching.  
  
Even though she had gotten an A in Home Ec., that was over a year ago, so she had some trouble figuring out how to stitch up the garment to make it fit. *Now, if I make a couple stitches here.No, no that won't do anything.Well, maybe if I make one of those dart things here.* When she finally had it figured out, she had to get the needle threaded. These needles were almost nothing like the ones they had used in class. There was barely even a hole at all! Only when a small shadow fell across her lap did she finally look up. Chris was leaning over and smiling.  
  
He only said, "I've always had the same problem." and wrapped one arm around her and took the thread and needle. Mai blushed at how close they were as he twisted the end of the thread and carefully put it through the opening at the top of the needle right in front of her. He then put it back in her hand and went back to his little bird.  
  
She looked over at him and said "Thank you so much."  
  
He only replied "Your welcome." And left her to her sewing.  
  
***  
  
Once the fire had burned down to some glowing coals, Chris said, "Alright Lynia, time for bed."  
  
"But Christopher!!"  
  
"No buts! It's already past your bedtime! Now you go and get ready for bed, while I brew up some tea."  
  
"Oh, so you and Mai get to stay up but I have to go to sleep!"  
  
"Believe me, it won't be any fun. We're just going to talk about boring grown up stuff."  
  
Lynia still looked skeptical. "If you're just going to talk about that, you can do it in front of me!"  
  
"Yes, but then it would be even further past your bedtime, and you'd be even harder to wake up in the morning."  
  
Mai smiled at this little display. *My life would be so different if I had a little brother or sister.* By the time she had finished that thought, Lynia had started to stalk over to the chest at the foot of her bed with a defeated look on her face. *That was quick* She glanced over at Chris who was fixing up a kettle on the big hook over the dying flames. So she put down her sewing and went over to the counter and grabbed the lantern and a couple mugs. Chris came over and took the candle from the lantern and lit it from the fireplace. They sat across the table from each other on their benches and waited for Lynia to get into bed. She came over to each of them to say good night, but when she leaned over to say good night she whispered in Mai's ear "knock 'im dead" and said good night in a more audible voice. Mai could only guess what she meant, but thought had already crossed her mind.  
  
They mutually understood that Chris had some questions he didn't want Lynia to hear, so they each waited until they heard her breathing gain a regular rhythm. He got right to the point:  
  
"Where did you really come from?"  
  
Mai looked down at her hands resting on the table. Could she really tell him the truth? More over, would he even believe her? Finally she decided to try him. "First you have to say, even though what I'll say might be crazy, you're going to have to believe me." When he nodded his head yes, she continued. She pulled out the half of the Witch's Circle she had been able to hold onto. "I can barely believe it myself, but I think I've traveled here from the future."  
  
She watched his unbelieving eyes get wide. "I know, I know, it's crazy. But I think it really is true. You see, I found this in a shop in the 21st century and.wait, this is the other half! The one that Joey gave me! I must have dropped the other one. Anyway, I bought this old thing in a shop in my home town, and a friend gave the other half to me. When I put them together, I got transported to the forest where you found me."  
  
Chris looked confused. "Wha- Wai- Huh? What are you talking about?"  
  
"Well, the old woman who sold it to me said something about a curse. Of course, I didn't believe her, but now I'm not so sure."  
  
"Let's go over this again. Your from the future?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And that thing is called a Witch's Circle?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"And it's really old."  
  
"That's right. But now I'd like you to answer some questions. Like what year is it?"  
  
"It's 1622."  
  
"Okay, so I only had one question." They sat in silence for a minute.  
  
Chris finally broke the silence. "Wow. You must be really scared. Being so far away from everything that seems normal to you."  
  
And for the first time that day, she discovered he was right. This place was so different, so foreign, it was really frightening. And for the first time in years, Mai could feel tears silently running down her cheeks. Then she felt an arm come around her shoulders; Chris had come around the table and was now sitting next to her. She leaned into him and let him comfort her, another thing she hadn't done in years. Chris felt her racking sobs, and pulled up her chin and looked into her eyes. Tears streamed down her cheeks and he bent over and kissed her lightly on the lips. But this wasn't enough for Mai, so she wrapped her arms around his neck and they deepened the kiss and fell back on the bench.  
  
***  
  
Alright folks, that's another chapter. Now leave some good reviews!! 


End file.
